Training
Nine years of compulsory schooling prevail,
on paper, in Yemen. But the school system is described
by the United Nations Children's Fund as one of the
victims of the bitter war that has shaken Yemen in
particular since 2015. Even before the war, the drop-out
of the school had many and major gender differences.
Almost all men between the ages of 15 and 24 had been
given the opportunity to learn to read and write, but
only three quarters of the women.
In 2018, Unicef estimated that as a result of the
war, around two million Yemeni children had no
opportunity to attend school. Since then, not least lack
of food has led to the children having even more vital
problems. According to the Children's Fund, four-fifths
of Yemen's children depend on assistance to survive.
- Allcitypopulation:
Offers a list of biggest cities in the state of Yemen, including the capital
city which hosts major colleges and universities.
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COUNTRYAAH:
Country facts of Yemen, including geography profile, population statistics, and business data.
Even where schools still function, teaching has
suffered. In Unicef's compilation, the calculation
included that two-thirds of the country's teachers had
not received a salary in two years (see Calendar). To
the extent that they were still teaching, and trying to
find other livelihood, the teaching hours and the number
of subjects they learned were subtracted.
About 2,500 school buildings had been damaged or
completely destroyed by acts of war. In some places,
schools are used today to house refugees, and it appears
that armed groups are taking over the buildings.
According to World Bank figures from 2012, about
one-fifth of the boys and one-quarter of the girls
jumped from school before completing ninth grade. In
girls' cases, drop-offs are often about conservative
families believing that education is unnecessary for
girls, while many boys leave school because they are
expected to work to provide for the family. Boys may
even be recruited as child soldiers. Such accusations
have been made against all armed groups in Yemen. At the
same time, girls are at greater risk of getting married,
with adult men, when families cannot support them.
Both the Yemeni government and aid donors previously
tried to expand the school system and equalize the
difference between boys and girls. The UN Food Program
WFP, which accounts for a large part of the food supply,
has also run a project offering poor families food in
exchange for the girls being allowed to go to school,
which in the areas where the project has been going has
increased the girls' attendance in the classroom with up
to 60 percent.
Lack of higher education and well-educated labor have
prevailed before. Almost half of the students previously
went to the three-year high school, but only one in ten
to higher studies.
There are also private schools for students who have
completed compulsory school, including Islamic higher
education institutions. A number of attacks have been
made against several private Muslim educational
institutions, citing that they have served as a facade
for violent Islamist groups.
As the war puts Shia and Sunni Muslims against each
other, there are also reports that curricula are being
changed to align with the worldview of the groups that
are local authorities.
At the colleges (nine state universities and about
twice as many private) many students choose to study
humanities. This has contributed to a shortage of, among
other things, healthcare personnel and technically
trained personnel in the business community. In 2018,
the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA)
organization reported that Yemen is one of the countries
where there has been the most violence against higher
education institutions.
FACTS - EDUCATION
Proportion of children starting primary
school
83.1 percent (2016)
Number of pupils per teacher in primary
school
27 (2016)
Reading and writing skills
54.1 percent (2004)
Public expenditure on education as a
percentage of GDP
12.5 percent (2008)
Public expenditure on education as a
percentage of the state budget
12.5 percent (2008)
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